Senate authorizes $7.6 million for Camp Ravenna

Today, U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman announced $7.6 million in funding for the construction of an automated multipurpose machine gun range at Camp Ravenna’s Joint Military Training Center. Brown secured these funds as part of the Military Construction Appropriations Bill. The bill must now be reconciled with the U.S. House bill before becoming law.

“The national guardsmen and women serving our country at Camp Ravenna deserve the best tools and facilities available as they train for future missions,” said Brown, a Cleveland Democrat. “This investment will provide important support to our Citizen-Soldiers at the joint training center and the entire National Guard, and I will continue working to secure it in the final budget Congress passes.”

"A new automated multi-purpose machine gun range will give the Ohio Army National Guard an important, new, and much-needed training capability," said Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican. "It will provide our soldiers a realistic environment to meet their training requirements that currently is not available to them in the state of Ohio. As our men and women in uniform face dangerous threats around the world, it is important they have the training, equipment, and facilities they need to confront them."

The two have been working to secure funding for Camp Ravenna’s Joint Military Training Center.

In March, Brown and Portman joined the Ohio Delegation in urging Secretary of Defense James Mattis to select Camp Ravenna as the East Coast Missile Defense site. And in February, at Brown’s urging, the President included the $7.4 million investment for Camp Ravenna in his budget proposal .

In 2015, Brown helped secure funding for improvements to the Camp’s indoor firing range facility in the National Defense Authorization Act and the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The funds improved the existing training for both overseas contingency operations as well as routine preparedness.

In 2014, Brown announced $5.2 million in federal funds for the Camp to extend the Ravenna water/sewer line. This infrastructure and utility funding is crucial to the growth of Camp Ravenna, which the Ohio National Guard continues to expand and develop as a major training site.